Mule Men Fall At F&m Defending Champion Muhlenberg Finds No Complement Against Dips.

February 22, 1996|by JEFF SCHULER, The Morning Call

All year long, Muhlenberg head coach Dave Madiera has been looking, if not for a dependable third scorer, at least for some balance to complement Chris Bedell and Mike Queenan.

Last night, at Franklin & Marshall's Mayser Center, the Muhlenberg coach got neither in a 72-59 loss to the Diplomats.

The lack of balance is a big reason why the Mules won't be defending their Centennial Conference crown.

Bedell and Queenan did their part, combining for 42 points, but the rest of the Mules chipped in with just 17 in the 13-point loss to the third-ranked Diplomats in the conference semifinals.

Two weeks ago, when Muhlenberg (13-12) handed F&M (24-1) its only loss, Bryan Schurmann, Jeff Graham, Matt Henrich and Jim Doumato combined for 35 points to back Bedell and Queenan's 29 in the 66-49 win in Memorial Hall.

Last night, though, the four managed just 15 points, shooting 4-for-11 from the floor, as the Diplomats avenged the setback and will host Saturday night's conference final with Gettysburg, a 69-68 winner over Haverford.

And while Madeira waited in vain to support Bedell (26 points on 11 of 14 shooting) and Queenan (16), F&M got some strong bench performances to weather foul trouble by all-conference forwards Mike Mehaffey and Darren Sanborn.

Rich Davis popped off the bench to score 12 points, doubling his season average, and combined with little-used Jeff Lerner for nine rebounds. Davis banged in a three-point play that gave F&M a commanding 63-51 bulge with 3:15 to play.

"Those two guys gave them a huge pick-me-up when they needed it the most," Madiera noted.

Despite Muhlenberg's troubles, it took two Dip spurts -- one in each half -- to put the Mules away.

The first, a 10-0 spurt late in the first half, gave the Dips a 31-27 halftime lead.

Muhlenberg overcame a horrendous start (five turnovers in the first 3 minutes) to grab a 22-19 lead with 7:31 left but then went scoreless for the next 5 minutes, 23 seconds, committing three turnovers and missing four shots from the floor.

F&M turned those three giveaways into seven points, taking a 29-22 advantage on Tom Deitzler's free throw with 3:07 left, and overall the Mules gave the ball away 13 times in the first half leading to 14 F&M points.

But after a three-point play by Mehaffey opened the second half, the Mules charged back. A jam by Bedell cut the lead to 36-34, and a Queenan 3-pointer later gave the Mules a 41-40 lead with 13:24 left.

But, after Bedell matched two free throws by Sanborn with a jumper, the Dips went on an 11-2 surge, sparked by Sanborn and Chris Kelliher. The 6-foot-8 Sanborn helped limit the Mules to just one shot over the 5-1/2-minute surge, pulling down three defensive rebounds. Meanwhile, the 5-10 Kelliher drove inside for three layups, the last a coast-to-coast sprint after a steal at the other end to give the Dips a 53-45 lead with 7:10 left.

Still, the Mules stayed within 57-51 with 4:12 to play on a Doumato jumper and was close to a defensive stop at the other end when Chris Loftus beat the 40-second clock with a lean-in 3-pointer that pushed the lead to nine. Moments later, a Bedell miss led to Davis' back-breaking three-point play.

"Their defense always makes you work hard for everything," noted F&M coach Glenn Robinson. "Tonight, I think we just wore them down a bit."

Madiera said Loftus' shot was the dagger that finally ended his team's hopes of repeating as conference champs.

"If that shot doesn't go in, we've got a real shot," Madiera said. "We felt all along we had a chance to win, and I'm real pleased with our level of play. We went toe-to-toe with them again, and the final score really isn't indicative.

"And I'm real proud of the way we finished the season," he added. "You always want your team to come as close to fulfilling their potential as they can, and that's what this team did down the stretch."